Position Summary:

The Director, Commercial Finance serves as a key business partner to the Corporate Commercial team in optimizing / maximizing profit and delivering gross margin performance through effective pricing and analysis. This individual will be viewed as the business partner that provides strategic direction and is seen as the “go to person” for business financial analysis, insight, and counsel. This person will be responsible for demonstrating strong communication, influencing and strategic thinking skills that will drive value to the business. This role is responsible for embedding standardized tools and processes to ensure consistency and efficiencies in performance reporting and analytics. This role partners closely with Business Development and supports Corporate Revenue Management objectives.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop and partner with the commercial team in order to support them in decision making with solid financial data and seek opportunities to improve profitability. Oversee and prepare annual volume, gross sales, deductions, net sales, margins and sales contribution plan by sales channel and product category
• Anticipate and identify risks and opportunities and make recommendations related to annual plan, trends, and actuals across all sales channels
• Assist and advise sales by quantifying and identifying financial issues. Provide recommendations and insights to improve and automate existing processes
• Analyze and automate financial reporting by reviewing underlying factors that influence margins and sales contributions. Provide awareness to variances vs. plan and prior years and provide gap closure actions to resolve variances
• Develop and maintain commercial long- and short-range forecasting models in concert with Director of Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting
• Communicate monthly / weekly financial results and forecast to senior leadership in a concise effective manner including presentation and analysis
• Lead the commercial finance team to standardize and improve performance measures and analytical methods, to ensure the integrity of information and clarity of performance measures are meaningful to senior leadership
• Develop strong relationships with commercial executives to maintain the open flow of communication, thus enabling a deeper understanding of current events within the business and marketplace
• Perform other job-related duties as assigned

Education and Experience:

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting or related field of study
• 7+ years of experience with an emphasis on commercial experience, P&L responsibility, and forecasting
• 3+ years of demonstrated supervisory experience
• Experience with financial planning and analysis

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s Degree
• Experience with international FP&A highly desired
• Foodservice and CPG experience a plus

Knowledge and Skills:

• 
  Demonstrated thorough knowledge of the capabilities of the transaction and reporting systems including, but not limited to MicroStrategy, JDE E1, or other local systems.
• Knowledge of using processes, tools, and techniques for exploring, reporting and evaluating alternative financial scenarios, and results.
• Knowledge of finance and accounting practices, financial analysis, and reporting.
• Knowledge, insight, and understanding of business concepts, tools, and processes needed for making sound decisions in the context of the company's business.
• Effective communication skills to provide information and messages in a way that produces clarity and impact.
• Strong planning and organizational skills necessary to coordinate the workload around multiple assignments and competing priorities.
• Business acumen skills to make business decisions based on financial forecasts and models
• Ability to effectively transmit, receive, and accurately interpret ideas, information, and needs through the application of appropriate communication behaviors.
• Ability to work effectively across functions and organizational levels to achieve desired goals.

Why Join Us:

Ventura Foods offers career growth opportunities as well as competitive compensation and benefits:

• Medical, Prescription, Dental, & Vision – coverage beginning on your 1st day for eligible employees
• Profit Sharing and 401(k) matching (after eligible criteria is met)
• Paid Vacation, Sick Time, and Holidays
• Employee Appreciation Events and Employee Assistance Programs
• Salary Base Range of $137,000 – $190,000 for Employees Located in California*
• Annual bonus (based on the incentive program terms and conditions)

• The “base salary range” provided above is a good faith estimate of what we expect to pay for this position. The range provided is for California-based employees as Ventura Foods is required by California State Law to post pay rates. Ventura Foods reserves the right to pay outside of the given range based on a variety of factors including but not limited to: candidate skills and experience, complexity of the job, budgetary factors, and location/geography. Ventura Foods conducts regular reviews of compensation ranges and therefore reserves the right to alter this range at any given time.